Pink Saris

Director: Kim Longinotto
Starring: Renu Devi, Sampat Pal Devi, Niranjan Pal
Run time: 96 mins | Recommended Certificate: 15
Language: Subtitled, Foreign language | Year: 2010 | Country: UK

‘A girl’s life is cruel…a woman’s life is very cruel,’ notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the centre of Pink Saris – director Kim Longinotto’s foray into the lives of extraordinary women.

Sampat should know – like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which beat her often. But she fought back and eventually became a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh, many of whom find their way to her doorstep. Like Rekha, a fourteen year old Untouchable, who is three months pregnant and homeless.

Fifteen year old Renu’s husband from an arranged marriage has abandoned her, her father-in-law has been raping her and she’s threatening to throw herself under a train. Both young women reach out for their only hope – Sampat Pal and her Gulabi Gang, Northern India’s women vigilantes in pink.

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